How to Hack a Heartbreak
Graydon House, 2019
Agent: Jessica Watterson
Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.
By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed help-desk tech at the renowned start-up incubator Hatch. There, she's tech support for condescending brogrammers--"Hatchlings"--who can't even fix their own laptops but assume she's useless because she's a woman. And by night, Mel is like every other young person in NYC: she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she's matched with on the ubiquitous dating app Fluttr.
But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had enough. Why do men feel they can harrass, stalk and verbally abuse the women they date on Fluttr, and why does the platform never do anything about it? So she takes matters into her own hands, designing an app of her own, JerkAlert, that allows users to log the names of serial online harrassers, in the name of creating a safe space for women.
JerkAlert is a smashing success...maybe too much of a success. When the app goes viral almost overnight, Mel is suddenly in way over her head. To make matters worse, her almost-boyfriend, Alex Hernandez--seemingly the only non-douchey guy at Hatch--has no idea she's the brains behind the app. And when Mel's bosses find out what she's been up to, she's left with an impossible choice--one that could destroy both her career and her budding romance, or change her life forever.
Accolades:
• Selected for the July 2019 Library Reads Program
Reviews:
"This is a story about really feeling your feelings — even when they cause pain — so you can move toward the love and the happy ever after... Online dating can be so dispiriting, yet it makes for a terrific romance in How to Hack a Heartbreak, by Kristin Rockaway... Set in the New York City tech scene, this is a funny, fast-paced romance that shows that romance and real love can happen — if you're willing to take it offline."
—NPR
“Rockaway’s sophomore work (The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World, 2017) is as sexy as it is topical. Providing a peek into the world of twentysomethings dating in the digital age and (s)wiping out, the fast-paced tale will have readers laughing and celebrating as Mel shows what she’s made of in the worlds of romance and tech.”
—Booklist Review
"Rockaway (The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World) delivers a sharp and funny tale of female empowerment with a side order of romance ...Rockaway creates an entertaining, if somewhat black-and-white, world of high-tech winners and losers, from Mel’s indomitable girlfriends to the rapacious businessmen in her way. A brisk plot and Mel’s determination will see readers through to the triumphant finish."
—Publishers Weekly
"For everyone who has been wronged in the world of online dating! Revenge is a dish best served digitally in Kristin Rockaway's book capturing what it's like to pursue ambition and love in New York City. Snappy pacing, a delightful group of best friends, women innovating in tech and a workplace love interest made this a book I really enjoyed."
—Sally Thorne, USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game and 99 Percent Mine
"A current and clever read, impossible to put down... Rockaway has masterfully painted the current dating landscape so many are navigating these days."
—Renée Carlino, USA TODAY bestselling author of Blind Kiss
“Smart, fun, fast-paced. Rockaway seamlessly blends the trials of modern dating with the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated workplace.”
—Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient
"Rockaway leads us on a charged ride through Internet dating and the start-up world through the shrewd eyes of S.T.E.M.-and-the-city girl, Melanie Strickland, and every bit of it is a page-turner.”
—Robinne Lee, author of The Idea of You